> We shouldn't e.g. use Firefox because it's largely funded by Google's search money?
You are right but you are being pedantic here. This is all about political agendas and supporting the good ones versus not supporting the bad ones. Please stick to the essence of the discussion.
> Facebook could close down its React involvement right now, and it would hardly affect its market cap or its ability to find developers to work there.
Please list me the reasons why you think Facebook is using open source then? And don't be selective.
> There are 100s of alternatives, including good old email, (...)
Yes, there are alternatives but they are not accessible because users have been locked into the network of Facebook. That was the point.
>Please list me the reasons why you think Facebook is using open source then? And don't be selective.
Very simply: because it gives them some developer good will and cheap PR for next to nothing. They want React for their internal use anyway, and it's just a minimal amount of time to have their devs maintain a project page and accept public comments and changesets.
It makes their devs happier too, to think that they don't just work for FB, but also give something back to the community.
But for FB, the corporation, and for their scale and their core business, React and all the value their open source efforts put together bring in, is insignificant -- statistical noise.
I think you are greatly underestimating the value of developer good will.
> it's just a minimal amount of time to have their devs maintain a project page and accept public comments and changesets.
It's really a lot of work to maintain a project of this size, and all of its issues and documentation. I'm guessing it easily doubles the total amount of work.
> It makes their devs happier too, to think that they don't just work for FB, but also give something back to the community.
I would go further and say that these devs would be unhappy and question the meaning of their work without such projects.
> But for FB (...) React (...) is insignificant
Perhaps, perhaps not. But I am personally not supporting this any further, and doing my best not to be hypocritical by on the one hand criticizing Facebook and how they abuse their users in every conceivable way, and on the other hand applauding their open source efforts.
>I think you are greatly underestimating the value of developer good will.
And I think that you greatly overestimating it.
Especially for a company like Facebook, whose business doesn't depend on developers anyway (even their "FB apps" platform is not such a big thing compared to FB core).
>It's really a lot of work to maintain a project of this size, and all of its issues and documentation. I'm guessing it easily doubles the total amount of work.
For a tiny team of a few devs, compared to the 1000s FB has on its payroll. Even if they spend like $1 million per year for just the "public open source" part of it, it's still peanuts.
>But I am personally not supporting this any further, and doing my best not to be hypocritical by on the one hand criticizing Facebook and how they abuse their users in every conceivable way, and on the other hand applauding their open source efforts.
Is that hypocritical though? Sounds more like calling something bad bad, and something good good, even if it comes from the same entity.
> Is that hypocritical though? Sounds more like calling something bad bad, and something good good, even if it comes from the same entity. Which is something we should strive for maybe?
I can answer that with simply: not if the good is reinforcing the bad.
You are right but you are being pedantic here. This is all about political agendas and supporting the good ones versus not supporting the bad ones. Please stick to the essence of the discussion.
> Facebook could close down its React involvement right now, and it would hardly affect its market cap or its ability to find developers to work there.
Please list me the reasons why you think Facebook is using open source then? And don't be selective.
> There are 100s of alternatives, including good old email, (...)
Yes, there are alternatives but they are not accessible because users have been locked into the network of Facebook. That was the point.